Tuesday, April 15, 2014

1st Dark Age game thoughts and images

After making these army rosters here I managed to get two games to trial how these forces will play using the Kings of War rules. I did make some minor changes to the options beforehand though.

The small units of Berserkers I decided to use 'Blade Dancers' costs and stats from the 'Twilight Kins' options (Evil Elves). This unit has low armour but a high number of attack dice. It sounded like a good fit for battle crazed loons. They also have higher base movement.

Missile units I replaced with 'Scouts' from the Elves options (good elves in this case). This options gives them two special rules. 'Vanguard', which gives them a beforeturn 1 move and, 'Nimble' lets the unit rotate without a movement penalty. This unit also moves a fraction faster than regular Humans.

My thoughts where that it would create a little more variety in player tactics with the Missile units a bit more flexible in movement like a skirmish style unit perhaps should be and the Berserkers being a little different to regular Human infantry.

My opposing player was my daughter who is ten years old and is a fast learner. She took me by surprise when she put her Elite Viking horde behind a forest. The first game we played in an evening at home and the table was about a foot short on the sides and ends. Around halfway through the household Mum joined us and was initially just observing but then slowly started to join in and help The Kid. She had good dice rolling and because of that probably did not need any help. As a testament to the game The Mum enjoyed the game and started asking more and more questions about movement and so on. When I explained how important a flank charge (double attack dice) and a rear charge (triple attack dice) light bulbs seemed to go off in her head. We all enjoyed ourselves and a lot of after game chatter took place.

What we learned...The Berserker units are very powerful when they strike. It would be wise to deploy slingers opposite them at the start of the game. They more than make up for the Anglo-Saxons having more people in the army (small toy people that is).